He was a supporter of vitalism, and until the late 18th century his works on phlogiston were accepted as an explanation for chemical processes.

His interests in chemistry were due to the influence a professor of medicine, Jacob Barner, and a chemist, Johann Kunckel von Löwenstjern.

Teaching at the university gained him such a good reputation that in 1687 he was hired as the personal physician to Duke Johann Ernst of Sachsen-Weimar.

From 1715 until his death, he was the physician and counselor to King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia and in charge of Berlin's Medical Board.

On the other hand, living things are subject to change and have a tendency to decompose, which led Stahl to work with fermentation.

[2] His views had been criticized by Gottfried Leibniz, with whom he exchanged letters, later published in a book titled Negotium otiosum seu σκιαμαχία (1720).

[9] As a physician, Stahl worked with patients and focused on the soul, or anima, as well as blood circulation and tonic motion.

Tonic motion, to Stahl, involved the contracting and relaxing movements of the body tissue in order to serve the three main purposes.

Tonic motion explained these phenomena as blood needed a natural or artificial path to flow when a part of the body is obstructed, injured, or swollen.

Stahl also experimented with menstruation, finding that bloodletting in an upper portion of the body would relieve bleeding during the period.

Becher's theories attempted in explaining chemistry as comprehensively as seemingly possible through classifying different earths according to specific reactions.

Phlogiston provided an explanation of various chemical phenomena and encouraged the chemists of the time to rationally work with the theory to explore more of the subject.

[4] He also propounded a view of fermentation, which in some respects resembles that supported by Justus von Liebig a century and half later.